Massive Jurassic fleas employed stout sucking siphons to feast on dinosaurs

[jpak]

http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/2012/03/03/massive-jurassic-fleas-employed-stout-sucking-siphons-to-feast-on-dinosaurs/

Massive Jurassic fleas feasted on dinosaur blood with stout sucking siphons, according to a study published in the journal Nature Wednesday. The massive Jurassic fleas measured approximately one inch long, researchers reveal.

“That’s a beast,” said Michael Engel, one of the study’s authors and a palaeoentomologist at the University of Kansas, according to The Associated Press. “It was a big critter. I can’t even imagine coming home and finding my miniature schnauzer with one or more of these things crawling around on it,” Mr. Engel added.

The massive Jurassic fleas were many times bigger than modern day fleas. While the ancient fleas measured nearly an inch long, modern day fleas are typically 2-3 millimeters, according to How It Works Magazine.

Modern day fleas have a variety of hosts from which to choose. Cat, dog and human fleas prefer the blood of their respective hosts, although these types of fleas can also be found sucking the blood of other mammals. The massive Jurassic flea had a much larger host, but the physical makeup of its mouthparts gave it the perfect set of tools for dining on the blood of dinosaurs.


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[MADem]

1. The subject line alone merits a rec!

The amplifying information justifies a kick!

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. If You Think Fleas Were Big - Spider As Big As A Cat.

If you think fleas were big I can remember being at the Denver Museum Of Natural History a few years ago in the Dinosaur exhibit. There was a fossil rock and it had a sign on it with the fossil of a spider as big as a cat. You could only see the main body of it at the top. I looked for that same fossil recently but they had moved it. I wanted to make sure that I had read the sign right. I do know I had seen it a couple of times in years past.

Now if you saw a spider as big as a cat what would you do? Would you run, try to stomp it or just shoot it?. Based on having such a large body it would have been three or four feet across possibly. How big a web would it have? Remember some of the old 1950's sci fi films? And how fast would such a creature be?

Somehow camping out in that era would be a real adventure.